2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: DING DING DING! Why would Christie try to TORPEDO the billion $ Fort Lee redevelopment [View all]pnwmom
(109,068 posts)No wonder some of the panelists on Kornacki the other day were acting as if this stuff was legal. Maybe it still is, if the pay-to-play reform laws were having to be passed separately in each municipality, as the real deal article indicates. I wonder why they could have a statewide ban on some of these practices but not others? I wonder what, if anything, has changed since this was written in 2007.
And then theres the stuff about Fulop. Wow.
http://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/new-jersey-tackles-pay-to-play/
In Jersey City, where there are 39 designated redevelopment areas and development has been in high gear in the citys downtown and waterfront, the proposed reform ordinance also sparked political fireworks.
Councilman Steven Fulop said he proposed the ordinance in order to put all development decisions on a level playing field, without campaign contributions being a part of the equation.
If there is no public bidding we need to take the highest possible road, said Fulop. This will go a long way as it is written to eliminate the influence of this type of money.
Mayor Jerramiah Healy said the state law already addresses pay-to-play, and opposes the new law because he said it would set an uneven playing field in the political arena. He said limiting donations would eventually mean only those who would be able to self-finance their campaigns would be able to run for office.
I think this is a form of self-flagellation and to show that I am holier than thou [because] we have a state law on this, Healy said. Since Ive been here, we literally do the right thing. Campaign contributions are never a criteria for designating a redeveloper. Never, never, never.